The Windows for our New Worship Centre
For over one hundred years, St Philip’s was a landmark bluestone church along the Yarra River side of Hoddle Street. Thirty-five years after the demolition of that building, the long-promised replacement has been built. A major work of stained glass will provide the focal point for worshippers and visitors—the “Trinity Window”, nearly eight metres high, will be a fresh restatement of that central theme for the twenty-first century. Christopher-John of Phoenix Glass, Box Hill has been commissioned to build this window, along with a suite of twelve smaller windows on the adjacent wall. Together, these windows will provide the community of Collingwood with a major piece of stained glass which will inspire faith and worship in Collingwood for future generations.
The Trinity Window will create a single, powerful symbolic image that speaks to varied faiths, cultures and age groups in an inner-city parish, reaching out to our contemporary humanity.
It is divided into three schematic zones of meaning, linked by the dual image of a “Tree of Life” and the Cross, interwoven one with the other. The top section is an abstracted map of the cosmos, the Creator represented by his Creation.
The middle zone represents an urban map of the Melbourne CBD which extends to the adjacent suite of twelve windows where the map extends into Collingwood and Hoddle Street. This is the material world of commerce, human law. They are the place of work and residence, and the names of our city and urban streets reflect our own roots and history. In the main window the streets are left unnamed, letting the CBD grid remain abstracted and general. In the adjacent suite of windows, the significant landmarks and street names are clearly defined. Thus juxtaposed, the two grids move between the general and the particular.
The final and lowest section of the window refers to the indigenous concept of map-making expressed in the western desert dot paintings. It intimates the notion of “moving through” the landscape tracking animals and identifying waterholes, hills and rivers. The importance of water is evident—the Yarra as a source of life: for the indigenous population and for the colonial settlers. Along with it, images of the River Jordan connect us to the sacrament of baptism as new birth, and the life-giving properties of water. Abstracted fish symbols form a map or pathway to follow Christ, each one representing us as an incomplete part of Christ on our journey towards the Cross at the centre.
The Suite of Box Windows depict the map of Collingwood, allowing for a full panorama of streets, spreading from Smith Street in the west over Hoddle Street and eastward to the Abbotsford/Hawthorn boundary of the Yarra. The Yarra River, meandering through the uppermost group of windows, reads as a great serpentine river of blue amongst the stars, much as the Milky Way arches overhead in the night sky.
Significant landmarks within Collingwood can be found within the grouped boxes: St Philip's Church, Collingwood Secondary College, Victoria Park, Collingwood Town Hall, Hoddle Street, Smith Street, Johnston Street, Collingwood Children's Farm and the old Convent in St Heliers Street.
The colour scheme reflects the Australian landscape. Golden browns, ochres, ambers, combined with deep blues, violets and purple, offer a haven of peace against the frenetic activity of the outside world. The background of blues and violets has been used as a counterpoint to the gold and clear glass of the Tree and the Cross. This heightened contrast gives the central focus a dramatic energy, while offering a point of meditation and peace in the depths of space.
More about: Trinity Window Suite of Box Windows